Psychoanalytic research ● For multi-subject research, continue to require approval by a reputable external Institutional Research Board. ● For studies of individual cases or small numbers of cases involving presentation of information about individuals, we recommend that the Research Committee add a requirement that applicants demonstrate that they have in place the protections of confidentiality in the use of clinical material in congresses and other scientific activities laid out in Section 3. 9.2 Telecommunications and remote analysis We recommend that the IPA adopt the following measures to reduce the risk of breaches of confidentiality through telecommunication: ● Revise existing policy documents. The final sentences of paragraph 7 of the IPA Policy on Remote Analysis in Training and Shuttle Analysis in Training (IPA, 2014-17) and of paragraph 8 of Practice Note on the use of Skype, Telephone or Other VoIP Technologies in Analysis (IPA, 2017), the texts of which are identical, 28 should be amended to read as follows: “Analysts must satisfy themselves that they understand the limits of the security provided by the technology they and their patients are using and the limits of their capacity to protect the patient's confidentiality. They should be aware that in psychoanalytic work undertaken using telecommunications the patient’s confidentiality cannot be guaranteed.” ● Advise IPA members to consider the analytic contract in each case. Analysts who offer psychoanalytic consultations or treatment by means of telecommunications should be advised to consider carefully in each case how the impossibility of guaranteeing confidentiality may affect the nature of the analytic contract that they enter into (and the analytic work that they do) with the patient. ● Add to the Ethics Code a section or sections on the specific risks to confidentiality that arise from the use of telecommunications. ● Recommend that IPA members review the security of the classical setting when devices such as ‘smart phones’ may be in or near their consulting room. ● Develop educational materials and sponsor educational opportunities for members and candidates on security of telecommunications, so that psychoanalysts become better informed about the nature of the telecommunications they are using and the risks to confidentiality involved. Both component Societies and the IPA should 28 These paragraphs currently read as follows: “There are issues regarding security, privacy protection and confidentiality over all form of telecommunications, including fixed and mobile telephones, VoIP applications, email, and any other application which uses the internet. These issues need to be considered, and analysts/patients/supervisees need to make themselves aware of them before commencing treatment. Analysts must satisfy themselves that the technology they are using is secure and protects the patient's confidentiality .” (our emphasis).
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